RE: MP3 Quality Tests (Was : Lower Lower Price on DDAR)

[Keith Doxey <ukha.diyha@xxxxxxx>]

Tim,

Chill out a little.

1. I cant answer your question as the only ripping I have done is with
Audio
Catalyst at 128Kbit Joint Stereo. I do rip first and then encode primarilly
due to having a fairly slow PC.

2. YOU will hear the difference.
YOUR system is far too good.
YOUR hearing is far too critical.

As others have mentioned, its "Horses for Courses". You have a
"Thoroughbred" Audio system, you need to use
"Thoroughbred" source material
or it will sound dreadful.

A lot also depends on your taste in music. As I have said before, my
collection covers 1955 to the present day. An awful lot of my favourite
music was recorded prior to 1980. On many of my CD's which have been
Digitally Remastered you can tell when the track is about to start because
of the HISS from the original Master Tapes. There is no way for this to be
removed completely as removing the hiss would also remove the higher
frequencies from the track.

Having said that, I dont think I would want a "Clinical" version
of the
song, it just wouldnt be the same. I have some cassettes that I recorded
when I was DJ'ing and they are full of records that jump etc. Each defect
triggers memories of what was happening at the time.

My favourite memory is one where a record slows to a standstill as a rather
well developed lady leant over to request a song and part of her anatomy
stopped the deck from turning. The record then returned to normal playing
as
the obstruction was delicately removed :-)

Also having spent so long around High Powered sound systems running at
between 95-120dB the top end of my hearing isnt quite what it should
be.....being 41 in a couple of weeks doesnt help either!

That doesnt mean I cant notice a bad sound system. The slightest traces of
clipping annoy me to distraction. Likewise I am totally unable to listen to
Radio 1 due to the audible compression evident whenever a DJ mutters
anything. (Doesnt help that 90% of the music they play is crap either
....IMHO)

I just wish I had the spare time to indulge in experiments where I already
knew what the outcome would be before I started and just wanted to prove to
myself that I was right all along.

Good luck with your experiment and I along with many other will be amazed
if
you post to this list saying "This MP3 thing is great, I've just built
a
server for all my music"

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy Morris [mailto:timothy.morris@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2001 10:00
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Lower Lower Price on DDAR


How many times do I have to say the same thing? BECAUSE I WANT TO SEE FOR
MYSELF WHETHER I CAN HEAR THE DIFFERENCE. There is a lot of experience
ripping mp3s on this list. I'm asking for some help. If you can't be arsed
because I don't see things your way, then don't bother. If in the future I
can get something reasonably priced that will interface to my car HiFi,
then
I can see an application there.

Now will someone answer my original question? Will I get a better results
from using a separate ripper or will using the CDex front end to LAME give
good results.

Tim.